Adventures OF Mommyhood

Hmm... which costume to choose?

2009-10-15T23:59:00.002-05:00

I've fallen in love again with Zwinky. Awhile ago, when I actually blogged consistantly, I would always update my Zwinky person. I really think its the best Avatar I've seen out there. I mean, isn't the girl just so cute?

Anyway, I've been designing Halloween costumes for her. In case you can't tell, the costumes are:

Clown

Robin Hood

Strawberry Shortcake

Pumpkin

Woman of the Woods

Sailor

Fairy Princess

Gypsy

I haven't decided yet which one is my favorite. They all have such good qualities to them!!!

Star Table

2009-09-30T13:40:00.002-05:00

Its almost October. Only a few hours away. So I'm changing my blog template to the halloween theme. Yeah for template designs!!!

Next, I have apologies to make. Wow, I haven't been blogging! Its terrible. I really need to catch up. Awhile ago, I did "Make-Up Mondays," where I would catch up what happened over the weekend. Maybe I should start doing that again, but making up for a whole week!

Now to the title of this post...

Erica LOVES preschool!!! I'm so happy for her. And I'm proud of her too. I was really worried that she'd be a trouble maker in school. Not that she's a bad kid; she's just REALLY active and likes to talk alot.

But on the fifth day of school, she came home with great news: She had gotten to sit at the star table! What is the star table, you may wonder. Every day, the teacher picks a student who has been doing a good job. And that student gets to sit at a special table and also gets a special stuffed animal for the day and night. My little Erica got this on just the fifth day of school!!! I was so proud!

Yesterday again she was at the star table. Each time, the teacher wrote a special note for her too. This one said: "Dear Erica, You are doing such nice work. I am proud of you."

And Erica tells me that she's never had to sit at the time out chair.

PLUS, she came home with a special prize. From what I can understand, they each have a calendar at school. And each morning they are supposed to update it by crossing out the previous day. That way they know what that day's date is. And Erica did her's all the right way and got a prize for it. [I'm not really sure how any kid could mess it up. So I'm wondering if its for attendance instead. But I'm not sure.]

I am really looking forward to parent/teacher conferences. Its not for a little while though. But I'm excited to hear more from the teacher's point of view.

Well, that's it for now. Gotta go!

School Daze

2009-09-10T10:32:00.000-05:00

Erica had her 1st day of Preschool yesterday. Yeah! Well, almost yeah.

We were all prepared, very excited. Erica went to bed early. Unfortunately, she woke up around 10 PM screaming. She said something was ringing in her ear. And I thought: Uh-oh its an ear infection. She cried and cried and cried.

I called the pediatritian. He said to give her Tylenol. And that if she didn't get better, take her to the ER. Great. Well, I tried to settle her down. We watched Dora while I held her. I did something naughty-- I gave her Benadryl to make her sleepy. Nothing worked.

So at midnight I took her to the ER. I explained first that we'd have to wait a long time but she wanted to. After 15 minutes though, she got tired of waiting. And she was getting drowsy too. So we came home [before even signing in!] and she fell right asleep.

I planned on just keeping her home from school. It was a sad decision to make b/c of it being the first day. But I thought it would be for the best, and that way I'd be able to take her to the Dr when they opened in the morning.

Because of this, I didn't set my alarm. I just slept and slept. Well, at 8:18 she came to me and woke me up: "I'm ready for my first day of school, mommy!" The silly girl was already dressed!!!

I asked and asked if she felt okay. She didn't even remember going to the hospital. She didn't have any pain at all. So I decided to take her to school. Which starts at 8:30. And it was already 8:20. YIKES!!!

She scarfed down cereal and we ran out the door. [All the pictures were taken after school, not before.] I got her there only 2 minutes late. The teacher hadn't started anything yet, so all was good.

Preschool was great. She had a blast. To celebrate, Erica and I went out for lunch. Afterward though, I called her Dr to make an appointment to check her ears, just in case. Wouldn't you know it... she has a serious ear infection. The Dr was surprised that she wasnt screaming still.

So now she's taking medicine. She hates the taste, and hates the eardrops even more. But I don't want it getting any worse.

Right now Erica is at preschool again. Its everyday from 8:30 to 12:00. And since its 11:30, I need to wrap this up so that I can pick her up.

Toodles!

Ugh!

2009-07-07T07:09:00.001-05:00

1. I am so tired of hearing about Michael Jackson. Can something else be on the news. PLEASE! Yeah, it was a shock that he died. Yeah, he had a big music career. But is everyone forgeting all the crap he was involved with? And regardless, this news coverage has lasted long enough.

2. Erica's been sooo grouchy lately! Perhaps because of the full moon? Or...

3. Both Erica and I have colds. Ugh. We keep coughing. Not fun.

4. We had a good time at 4th of July picnic. Erica got two baby toads and brought them home. The problem is that the toads arent eating. At least, not that I'm seeing. I gave them dried frog food; they didnt eat it. I gave them mini crickets; they were afraid of the cickets and kept hopping away. I fed them ants; they were afraid of the ants too! I gave them little worms, lightning bugs, dead flies, even blueberries and bananas. Nothing!

5. I'm having trouble with my knees again. Its terrible, getting closer to what it was when I was in college: it had been so bad that I could hardly walk. And then I totally freaked out when my jaw started locking again. I had serious trouble with TMJ in high school, and went thru therapy and surgeries for it. Well, it got better, but never perfect. It stopped locking, but since then I've always had pain and my jaw still always clicked everytime I'd open and close my mouth. STUPID JOINTS! All of my joints are too loose, and that ultimately is whats causing the trouble.

Well, enough ughs for now.

Wow

2009-06-25T20:02:00.002-05:00

I was just checking up on my celebrity news...

Today, Farrah Fawcett AND Michael Jackson died. Whereas Farrah has been sick for awhile, the news of Michael Jackson was shocking to me.

Not that I ever liked him in the least. Far from. But I'll keep my opinions to myself for now. Its just terribly sad when anyone goes.

Beat the Heat

2009-06-23T15:35:00.001-05:00

So, as I've made mention in years past, we get ants in our house. Some may come from the front of the house or the sides. But most come in from our sunroom. Its so frustrating each year. Ants are my enemies!!!

This year, I thought I'd found the perfect solution. (I dont remember what its named, though.) I sprayed all around the sunroom and in the windows / doorway too, from the inside AND outside. For extra measure I also set off a fogger in there. And I made a decree: NO FOOD IN THE SUNROOM!!!

This took care of the problem for the most part. Or so I thought.

I was just in the sunroom to close the blinds. (Love the neighbors, but dont want them seeing inside the house.) Well as I was doing so, I noticed some type of dirt on the ground. Lots of it. Upon looking closer, I saw that it wasnt dirt... It was a bunch of dead ants! They werent dead from poison though... It was the heat! That room gets above 100 degrees during the summer, and the floor especially gets hot. So the ants met an excruciatingly hot demise... Or something like that.

I dont feel bad for them at all though. Serves them right for tresspassing onto my territory.

Awake

2009-06-20T23:24:00.001-05:00

I cant sleep. Thus, I am mobile blogging. I already spent 20 mins facebooking from my cell. I think my hands are gonna cramp-up. Ugh.

I went out to CVS at 10:30 for cough med for Erica. She was coughing so much that she couldnt sleep. Of course, when I got home, she was asleep. Oh well.

Thats why I'm awake. But I think I'll try to sleep now.

Buenos noches!

Recital Videos

2009-06-11T09:02:00.009-05:00

Here are some videos. They’ve been a pain to upload. Ugh.

Anyway, the first one is of the song “My Thumbs are Dancing.” It was the song that only Erica’s class performed. They did a fantastic job. I took this movie from backstage in the side wings. I used my old camera, b/c Andrew had the good one in the auditorium, so you’ll notice a clicking sound throughout the video. You’ll also hear Erica yell “Mama!” when she sees me. The moms and I all started laughing. So funny.

[I'm having difficulties. So I ended up having to split the video into 2 sections, then upload it to Photobucket. Hence, it will be slightly different to view than the first one.] The second and third videos are of “Nearly Missed the Rainbow.” That’s the song that Erica’s class did with the other young classes. It was chaos, yet somehow my Dad managed to stay focused on her for the majority of the time. Erica is wearing blue, has her blonde hair in a bun. She's towards the back, behind other girls. And you can pick her out if you look for the one who's biting her fingernails. Ugh.

More Recital Pictures

2009-06-11T06:48:00.007-05:00

More Pictures! Yeah!

In the previous post, I mentioned that Erica was kind enough to share her coloring books, games, toys, and snacks with the other girls in her class. So here's a picture of them huddled on the ground to color. Have you ever heard of Crayola's "Color Wonder" products? They're amazing! The markers only color on special paper. So if she were to accidentally [or purposefully] color on herself or her costume, it wouldn't leave a mark!

Now I suppose I'll pick up where I left off... I need to talk about the actual performances.

In some ways, we were extremely lucky with how things went together. One of Andrew's good friends from church was actually working at the recital, in charge of lighting/sound/other AV type stuff. And Erica does now Shannon [that's his name] a bit as well. And so, before she went out onto the dark and creepy stage I was able to assure her: "The stage is going to be dark when you walk out. But don't worry! Mr. Shannon is taking care of the lights. And he's going to turn the lights on for you so that you can dance!" And so, she wasn't afraid at all. I also assured her many times: "This is all about having fun! Yes, we want you to try your best. But just try to have fun out there. You'll do great."

I really was shocked at how well it went. I was never really worried about Erica freaking out. [She had earlier at rehearsal... but that was just b/c her shoes broke. Stupid Crocs! Why spend all that money if they're just gonna break!] But she got over that quickly, and the performance was hours later. Anyway, I was saying how shocked I was. BECAUSE-- all of the girls did so well! None of them freaked out, none of them cried, none of them ran off stage, none of them stood still in fear. They all danced and had fun!

Their first song was called "My Thumbs Are Dancing." It was for just their class. They did a pretty good job with it. At one point, they were supposed to join hands and dance in a circle. Well, they got to the holding hands part, but then one of the girls got confused and left the circle to move onto the next part of the dance too early... But their teacher had been right. It was cute and we all loved it, no matter the problems. At classes, I'd get so stressed out when she'd mess up. But at the recital she was just so cute.

Another funny thing about that song... The mothers stood offstage in the

wings to watch. And Erica spotted me somehow. And she shouted: "Mama!" We all busted out laughing. But Andrew assured me that no one in the audience heard that part.

Then we headed out into the halls again to wait. It wasn't as long of a wait then. They soon had their second dance. It was a combination of all 3 young classes. The 3 y/o, 4 y/o, 5 y/o classes. I knew it would be chaotic; that's a lot of kids and they had only practiced all together twice before. But it was crazier than I could have imagined. Somehow, the music started before all of the kids were on stage... All of the youngest ones were still offstage. So they had no idea what to do. They just ran out and picked any old spot to stand. I could hardly keep an eye on Erica, and I was just off to the side watching. Somehow my father managed to video her through most of the song. I'll post videos soon too.

But none of them seemed to mind the chaos of it. They were still all so happy. [By the way, there's a picture of this towards the top of the post. I only managed to get a picture of her back. She's wearing blue and is farthest away.]

Not long after that was the final curtain call. All of the performers ran out onto stage to bow. Since Erica's group is the shortest, they were last to come out. So you may be able to see her in this picture. She's in the front row, far to the left. Okay, you really can't see her. But I'll try to add a movie clip soon of her coming out onto stage, and she's quite visible on that.

When it was all over, I quickly cleaned up the markers and toys. Then I took Erica into the auditorium to meet up with our family. She was so thrilled that everyone was there! I cannot begin to explain how thrilled she was. She kept laughing: "My family is here!" And Erica got a bouquet of flowers. I knew that there was no way I'd be able to bring any b/c of the craziness of the day. So I had called my mom to bring some. And it just thrilled Erica so much! She really felt like a ballerina b/c she got flowers for her performance.

We took some pictures there [obviously, since I have several of them posted], and then headed to our home for dinner/dessert. It was a good meal, but really easy. I had put meatballs and marinara sauce into my crockpot that morning, so they were nice and yummy by the time we got home. I also had lunch meats for sandwhiches. Erica specially picked out chips and pretzels for the party. My mom brought salad and Andrew's mother brought fruit salad.

But the best part-- to Erica at least-- was the cake. We got an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, and Erica had picked out the design for it herself. I had wanted it to have a ballerina on it, but when she saw the design of the Disney Princesses, she was adamant about having that one. I figured it was her party and I shouldn't fight her on it.

So, in conclusion, everything went well. It was a fantastic day. I'm so proud of my little girl!

Recital! Recital! Recital!

2009-06-09T19:46:00.004-05:00

Isn't she beautiful? She was quite the prima ballerina

So, where to begin? I suppose I can start by saying that Saturday was a BUSY day! I had to clean the house and get all the food ready for the party afterwards.

Then we left at 12 to be at the school by 12:30. [It was held in a high schoool auditorium.] From 12:30 until 2:00, they did some practicing. Mainly just practicing the curtain call, where everyone comes out to bow.

They practiced that many times, then had them all sit where they were on the stage. [Hence, the picture of Erica sitting on the stage with some of her friends. They lady standing is their teacher.] Then they went over the order of events, did mic checks, and other stuff.

We got a break from 2:00 - 3:00 to do whatever. I thought it was best to get out of the school for a change of scenery. We didn't have time to go home or anywhere else, so we just stayed in the car. I took my laptop so that Erica could watch a movie while resting and having a snack. Even though it seems boring, it was actually good for her. The rest of the day was so crazy. And the movie was good... it was a Strawberry Shortcake movie where the girls all learn a dance and then perform at a recital. Fitting, huh?

At 3:00 we went back inside. Erica got changed into her pretty blue costume. I did finishing touches on her hair... She had to have it all pulled back into a bun. UGH!!! That was the worst experience of this whole thing. I tried ALL WEEK to figure out what to do. Nothing ever worked right, and she always took the clips out after I put them in. She kept promising that she'd keep them in on recital day, but I doubted it... Well, Erica was true to her word. She didn't mess with it the whole day. And I did a perfect job getting it put back. I'm still totally shocked as to how that happened.

The recital began at 4:00. I stayed with Erica the whole time. [Remind me next time NOT TO BUY A TICKET for myself! Jeesh.] The parents had been told that we could stay with our kids backstage or leave them there with their classes. Well, its good I stayed with her. There was NO ONE there to watch over the kids. [I wouldn't have expected it anyway, but we had been told that there'd be volunteers back with the kids.] And no one brought anything for their kids to do or play with during the waiting time. We began sitting around 3:00 and the ending curtain call at 5:30.

I know my child, though, and knew there was no way she'd survive the time without something to do. I took coloring book and 6 markers, 2 toy horses and prince and princess, memory, bingo, a card game, and a snack. Well, all these kids came crowding around when they saw the stuff. But what was I supposed to do? Keep it hidden so that they wouldn't get jealous? No-- Erica needed something to do. And my child, such a good girl, was willing to share with everyone. ... Well, the 6 girls in her class. It was funny watching them, since there were only 6 markers and only 5 pictures in the coloring book that werent already finished. But all in all, that was great.

... ... ...

I know I'm giving such unimportant information. The key part of this all is: How did she dance? Well hahaha. I'm not gonna tell now. First of all, my fingers are cramping. Second, I have chores to finish. But mostly because I have 'video' of her dances that I still need to upload onto the computer from my other camera. So I'll get to that later.

Look-a-Like

2009-06-03T20:44:00.000-05:00

Tis the season for fresh fruits at the Amish stands. Erica and I go quite often.

A few days ago we were there and saw her dance teacher-- small world. And then, the last time we were there, I saw a girl who was around 8 years... AND SHE LOOKED JUST LIKE ME AT THAT AGE! I almost laughed about it, but didnt want to freak her out. It really was neat though.

ANYWAY...

Erica's dance recital is Saturday. Eek! I hope it all goes well. Keep your fingers crossed.

Travesty

2009-05-25T21:53:00.001-05:00

Oh, horrors of horrors!!!

I went to load pictures onto my comp, only to find that ALL of my pictures mysteriously disappeared from my camera!!!

How will I survive? Oh the travesty!

On another note, our Memorial Day was good. First to my family, for my neice's 1st birthday party. My rents had a kid pool and slip&slide for the kids They were so cute to watch. Then off to Andrew's family. LOTS of kids to play. Anyway... I had a great day. It was oddly relaxing for such a busy day.

My child wont sleep though. She had a short nap coming home, and that was enough to revitalize her.

Ah, well.

Dance

2009-05-19T22:17:00.001-05:00

I'm so excited! Erica's dance recital is coming up soon!!!

I know that I shouldnt get my hopes up... She may get scared and not even go on stage. But I'm doubting that'll happen. She's been on stage at Church many times and has loved it.

Tonight at class, the teacher sat them down to talk about it. She asked if any of them were scared. A few said yes, most said no. Then my silly child said: "I'm afraid of storms!" Then all the others chirped in about what does and doesn't scare them. Jeepers. (Actually, it was cute and funny.)

Now I'm thinking of next year. We got info about their options. She can continue with the general 'creative mvt' class. OR choose from tap, broadway (which includes singing and acting), or jazzy hip-hop. She loves pretending to tap at home... So I'm considering that. I just worry it might be too much for her.

Any thoughts?

Accident

2009-05-15T09:04:00.001-05:00

Abby and Mommy were in a car accident. They're both relatively OK, but Abby's car is totalled. I'll give more details later, when I'm at my comp. Texting is too hard!

Bye-bye

2009-05-14T14:25:00.001-05:00

I bid a sad fare-thee-well to my sister... Who is at this very momment driving to Georgia.

Yesterday, she and I spent the day together. It was nice. (I love my daughter, but...) It was good to be just Abby and me. Erica spent the day with my MIL.

In other news: Erica and I spent the morning decorating her room. She wanted it to be fancy, cuz her fav books now are 'Fancy Nancy.'

also... I've discovered how to use the internet on my cell. (which I'm doing now.) Its not easy though, cuz I dont have a fancy Blackberry or anything But I'm exploring the possibilities.

Well, adios for now!
#END

Email Blogging

2009-05-12T10:19:00.005-05:00

I'm trying out "email blogging." If I can figure it out, that'll be SO COOL! This post is via email, so if you can read it, then I have succeeded. Yippee!

* * *

My test was successful! Awesome. See, one of the reasons for my lack of blogging is that I'm hardly ever at my laptop anymore. I can check email on my cell phone, so I'm not getting on the internet daily to check it anymore. But with email blogging, I can post from my phone! I know there's a way to text-blog, but it looked more difficult.

Now I'm on Blogger. I want to add pictures... cuz I'm SOOOO behind!

There are Easter pictures here. One is of Erica at an egg hunt. The other is her with cousins Joshua, Peter, and Luke. [Sorry to my side of the family... I forgot to take pictures at our gathering. Oops.]

There's also a picture of Erica with her new bike. I seriously thought my husband was crazy when he took her to buy it. I thought "There's no way she'll be able to use it! She's too young!" She never even had learned to pedal her tricycle. But wouldn't you know it... she took to it like a pro! Now she goes so fast that I need to run to keep up.

The last two pictures are from my family's gathering over this past weekend. My sister has decided to move to Georgia, so we had one last Hurrah. I'm gonna miss Abby a lot. But I love you, twin!

OH. MY. WORD.

2009-04-29T23:40:00.003-05:00

Its been insanely long since I've posted. I keep meaning to... but just don't get around to it. Grrr.

There's so much to say...

*Easter was great
*Erica got a new bike. Yes, a REAL bike with training wheels.

UGH! I'm so disorganized that I can't even think of what else I needed to say. Crazy.

I'm thinking of starting mobile blogging. Hmmm... I wonder...

Pictures

2009-04-07T10:30:00.003-05:00

For Erica's 4th Birthday, I had put together a collage-type thing of Erica growing up. I thought I'd share it.

More pictures and random things are at my extension site: More About Our Daily Adventures.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?!?!?

2009-04-02T12:33:00.003-05:00

I can't believe its been so long since I've last written. Wow. There've been so many times when I thought "I need to blog about this!" but then didn't get around to it. So as I'm sitting here now, I honestly can't think of any of those things. Urgh. Well, I'll try...

*Erica's doing an AWESOME job at dance class. A huge improvement from the drama before. The week after the big blow up, I sat out of the class to see if she'd behave better w/o me. Not the case. So then I had lots of thinking to do. I felt bad, b/c I was starting to make this not-fun for Erica. So I just changed my mind about it all, figured that having fun is the most important part. Each week now, as we're driving to class I ask her lots of questions: What's your favorite part of dance class; which is your favorite song; are you excited to see your friends? And I tell her over and over again that she's a great dancer and she can learn to be a great listener too. Its been working wonders. In between dances, all the girls run to their parents. I make sure to give a positive, then a 'work on this' followed by another positive.

*I have my CPAP now. What's that? Its a Consistant Positive Airway Pressure machine. It's what I use for my sleep problems. Yes, my tests are finally all finished and done with. The results? My constant fatigue is from sleep apnea and hypopnea. Most people know what sleep apnea is... a person stops breathing in their sleep. In most cases, its not really dangerous. Your brain just momentarily wakes up your body to start breathing again. You don't actually remember waking up though; its not a total awake stage, but enough to pull you out of deep sleep. I have some of those issues. My major thing is the hypopnea. A person doesn't stop breathing with this one, but the throat closes so much that not enough oxygen gets through. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it: This disruptive pattern of breathing generates disruptive sleep patterns, the consequences of which being that those individuals may exhibit increased fatiguability, lethargy, decreased ability to concentrate, increased irritability, and morning headaches. Basically, those individuals are extremely tired due to their inability to get a good night’s sleep. Wow, that's totally me!

*Erica and I have been playing games non-stop. Well, thats not completely true. But still, we love playing games. That's one of the things I love about her growing up. Infant/toddler is nice, but preschool age is awesome. Sure, she's a drama queen but oh well. Anyway, I was talking about games. Our favorite game is Yahtzee Jr. I personally LOVE Yahtzee. Andrew will never play with me b/c I always win... his excuse is that its a game that is pure luck and no skill. That's not completely true, but he won't concede. So for Erica's BDay, her grandparents got her lots of games. A Colorforms weather game, 'Princess Charming', 'Monopoly Town', and 'Yahtzee Jr.' They're all fun. But like I said, I'm a Yahtzee lover. Its not nearly as complex as the regular thing, but its still fun. I just love rolling dice. Its so much stinkin' fun!!!! Anyone agree with me on that? Gotta love rolling dice. Erica's so cute: When she rolls, she shouts: "Gimme a yahtzee!"

I know there's much more to be said... but I just can't think of it!!! I'll try to post again soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

2009-03-13T13:47:00.007-05:00

I'll be changing the header soon for easter/springtime. So I thought I'd just post a quick picture of the birthday header. I'm really addicted to making headers.

SO, my darling is now 4 years old. She's such a big girl now. Awe!!! Her birthday was actually the 9th, but I am just really delayed in writing about it... So much has been happening around here.

The party was Saturday the 7th and was a 'crayon' theme. I spent HOURS making coloring/activity books for them, including coloring pictures, mazes, and even bingo. You'll see a picture somewhere in here of Erica and her cousin Joshua coloring in them.

I tried to decorate some too along the theme. I used yellow and green cups-- the crayola box colors. [Though Erica wanted plates and napkins that had colorful balloons on them, I figured Okay, Why Not.] I set her "Mr Cranny" on the table... though removed him when it was eating time. And at the Dollar Store, I had found a giant yellow crayon so I just had to get it. Then, interspersed along the table were little crayon boxes. The kids were each allowed to take one then.

You'll see my awesome cake in some of the pictures. Yes, I'm awesome! That thing was SO HARD TO MAKE!!!! I thought it looked easy enough-- haha, jokes on me. It was excruciatingly difficult and took up SO MUCH TIME. The cake book that I found the idea in suggested to refridgerate the cake between frosting, which would make it easier to put on subsequent layers. That was very true... but just added to the time. The final step was to add colored icecream cones to the top, to look like crayons sticking out of the box. Quite clever!

One thing that I put together for them-- not crayon related-- was a scavenger hunt. Well not really, since they're so young. But we put prizes out in the yard and gave them each bags to go and collect as much as they could find. They had fun doing that. Erica was a sweetheart and shared some of her prizes with her younger cousin, Peter.

Some of the prizes were punching balloons. I love those things; I got them just as much for myself as for them. HeHe :-) Do you know what I'm talking about? The balloons blow up really big and are connected to a long rubberband, and you can punch it back and forth really fast? Hopefully the picture will help exlplain it, if you don't know what I'm refering to.

OTHER RANDOM NOTES:

-I really thought about Erica's crazy behavior at dance class. The week after that one horrible night, I stayed in the waiting room to see if she'd do better without me. Well, she didn't, not at all... but at least I wasn't stressed from watching. Then this past week, she did a FANTASTIC job. I'm not really sure what the diference was. All I could think was that perhaps it was because only three other girls were there this week, instead of the normal 7 or 8.

-Erica had FOUR shots at her doctor's checkup. Poor child! And we didn't have her normal doctor this time; instead it was one of the more unfriendly doctors. He just walked in, said "Hold her and grab her hands," and then he stuck her with four needles and left. GRRRR, I was not happy with him. And of course, neither was Erica. She cried all afternoon. [Surprisingly, this was the day of her great dance class. I wasn't even going to take her, b/c she had been so upset. But she insisted on going.]

-I mentioned before about going to a sleep specialist because of always being tired. Well, that doctor set up a time for me to have a sleep study. So I went overnight to this sleep lab... but the rooms were so nice, more like hotel rooms than hospital rooms. Yeah, I was hooked up to tons of wires. My legs, arms, chest, nose, and 9 on my head! But the doctor working with me was so nice. We had lots to talk about, which was good because it took over 45 minutes to attach all the wires. That would have been long and boring if the guy had been silent. Anyway, I slept very well. Really, I did. I haven't gotten the results back yet; for each minute that you're hooked up, they record 2 pages of information. So that's a lot to look thru! But he said that somethings going on that I'm not getting enough oxygen. Aha, that would do it.

More on that later. My computer battery is about to die. Eek!!

Crayon Fun!

2009-03-06T23:55:00.001-05:00

Erica decided on a crayon-themed birthday party. Why?

Last weekend [the final weekend of February], Andrew was away with guy friends. SOOO, I decided to hang out with my 'rents for the weekend. Yes, I crashed their house and mooched off of their generosity. What can I say... :-)

On Sunday, we decided to have a fun trip to Easton... to visit the Crayola Factory! I bet you never heard of it before, huh? Yeah for living in Pennsylvania!!!

Its amazing, really great for kids to enjoy. Its not just some run-of-the-mill museum. Sure, there are exhibits and timelines of Crayola's beginnings. But there are so many hands-on activities. There's no way I can include ALL of the pictures from the trip. But I'll try to add a few. [Okay, more than a few!]

I'll try to explain some of the pictures. For example, to the left <---- there is a picture of Erica 'dancing.' They have a room that transfers your movements into a kaleidescope of fun colors. We were fortunate that the place wasn't very full that Sunday, so we had a chance to get Erica's picture w/o other kids in the room as well.

She enjoyed painting a treasure map. We dipped a roller into green paint and then brushed it across a map-template. Then we pressed a piece of paper over top [as you can see my mother doing] and the picture transfers.

Erica also LOVED LOVED LOVED making a puppet. She gave him a crown, arms, and legs. I drew the face for her. She was very proud of her king.

There were lots of other things then. They had window/walls that the kids could draw on with marker. She liked the chance to actually draw on the wall. Sorry, I'm not sharing the picture of that. There was another craft that she wasn't quite good at. Then we looked into CRAZY mirrors. Definitely not sharing pictures of that... though I did like the ones that made me look skinnier. Ha ha!

There was a play area for younger kids. It was nice for in-between times. She has a very short attention span, and in addition she's extremely active! So in between some of the crafts, she went to the play area to run around.

One activity involved melted wax. ...I'm having trouble thinking of words to describe it, so look at the picture to the left. <---- There were many different colors of melted wax. They had papers to design and would stick que-tips into the wax to use as a paint brush. That was neat.

Then we used modeling clay which you could shape and color with markers. Not easy at all! We're so used to play-doh which is soft.... This stuff was really hard to roll out and shape. Plus, she got marker on her shirt AND IT DIDN'T COME OUT IN THE WASH! I'm not happy about that at all.

I forgot to mention the sidewalk chalk. There's a nice big area to draw with chalk. Erica walked right past it though. I'm not quite sure why, b/c she loves the stuff. Maybe its "familiar" and she wanted to move onto new things.

We watched a crayon-making demonstration. That was fascinating. The guy gave each kid a crayon and a wrapper to try and wrap themselves. Erica's turned out rather well.

There's a HUGE giftstore there [big surprise, huh?]. The entrance has a wall with all of their colors shown. That's the picture to the right ---> with my parents and Erica. The store was great! There are so many more options than you'd find at Walmart or KMart or wherever you shop.

I picked up a Birthday present for her. She hasn't seen it yet; its a surprise. But my parents bought her a shirt and let her pick out a crayon buddy. She picked a yellow crayon. She has now named him "Cranny." She really loves that thing. She wants to take him everywhere!

There was lots else, but its 1 AM and I still have so much to do for Erica's birthday party!!! Eek! Its tomorrow. [Actually, that's today!!! Its Saturday now!]

I NEED ADVICE!!!

2009-02-24T20:12:00.004-05:00

So, I'm at Starbucks right now. I had a HUGE falling out at home and needed to get away. [Granted, my trip to starbucks was preplanned since last week.] The falling out was not with my hubby however. In fact, he was fantastic. I love it when he's there for me, to be my strength.
My falling out was with my daughter. We were both bawling our eyes out. I think I've even burst some blood vessels on my eyelids.

Let me explain. Hmm... where to start...

Well, my previous post I told that Erica got a haircut because she was goofing off at dance class. Well, that wasn't just a one-time thing. She's been like that for weeks. Its so embarrassing to have the "bad kid in class."

So I went early tonight in order to talk with the teacher. I told her my concerns and wondered if Erica was really doing as badly as I perceived it to be. Well, the teacher was really nice and reassuring. One thing she said was that last years group had been even worse. And she also reaffirmed my thought that Erica NEEDS to go to preschool next year to get that structured envirement where she needs to learn to follow instructions.

I was feeling better then. And was really optimistic for the night... During the day, Erica and I practiced each of the 3 dances several times. She had fun and did everything SO WELL. Really, she was doing everying almost perfectly. She was excited to go to class tonight.

It started well... she did all of the stretches with the class and was a real darling. THEN the trouble came. The first dance they worked on is called "nearly missed the rainbow." Her favorite thing, between all of their three dances, is a part in this song where they get to walk. Yes, walk. But they do it as a cute funky walk. Well, the teacher told them that for the recital, they can't do that. So from now on they're gonna do the dance by marching in place at that spot.

SHE GOT SO GRUMPY! She's a little drama queen to begin with. There was a lot of pouting, arms crossing, stomping, hands on hips, growls, etc.

And I could have overlooked that... or at least forgiven it.

BUT... this child must have some sort of "oral fixation." Now that the hair can't get in her mouth, she's decided to put her hands in her mouth. And not just that... THEN SHE STARTED SPITTING IN HER HANDS AND RUBBING IT ALL OVER HER FACE! I'm not joking. And of course then all the parents were ticked at her-- and me-- because when they hold hands in a circle, Erica gets her germs all over the other little girls!

I called her over to me, put antibacterial stuff on her hands, but she just kept doing it. I kept warning then that if she didn't stop, she wouldn't get to watch her movie tonight. But the spitting continued. And she didn't participate in any of the dances. She just kept goofing off, even when they moved to a different song.

So when we left, I told her no movie tonight. She started crying and crying. And then I started crying and crying. When I got home, I cried to Andrew and he listened to me and understood... or at least acted like he did [which was fine with me]. Then he listened to Erica. And he did calm her down some.

With the story now told, I'll get to the advice part. Really, I just don't know what to do. It's so embarrassing to me. I get so frustrated. I'm afraid that I'm gonna take the fun out of it for Erica, but on the other hand she does need to learn b/c of the recital coming up. Is this really no big deal and I'm overreacting? Ugh!!!!

So, what to do:
a) Stop taking her to class but make Andrew take her
b) Pull her out of classes all together
c) Just let it go and don't make a big deal
d) Take her but dont sit in on class; wait in the waiting room

[PS: It's Wednesday morning now. I'm calmed down. I think I know what I'll do... but I'll still take opinions!!!]

Proactive or Impulsive?

2009-02-18T17:50:00.003-05:00

At Erica's dance class last night, she didn't dance... Instead, she chewed on her hair the entire time. I was getting more and more upset and annoyed. And I told her to stop doing it and dance instead. OR ELSE...

So, I was just so sick and tired of always trying to get her to stop doing it. So after class, I took her straight to a haircutter. And now she can't reach any of her hair to her mouth.

The End of problem.

So, was I being proactive? Or just impulsive?

[Before and After pictues added]

Birthday Countdown!

2009-02-17T11:50:00.003-05:00

Erica will be turning FOUR soon! Yes, thats 4!!!

Okay, well there's still a little while. Her birthday is March 9th. But we're starting to think about presents and parties and stuff. So, in honor of this momentous occassion, I've changed the header of this blog to a birthday theme.

I'm at the library now w/ my daughter. She had a class, so I've been working away on the new template. However, the battery on my laptop is about to die, and there are no outlets nearby.

So adios for now!

HAPPY V-DAY!

2009-02-15T08:19:00.003-05:00

Back in the day, my sister Abby and I ran another blog called "Just a quick question." We asked ridiculous questions to make people laugh. Here's one from back then...

Valentine's Day. That time of year when you are either:
a) intoxicated by the love of your life
b) wishing you had a different love of your life
c) desperately single and wanting a love of your life
d) livid by the whole idea of needing a love of your life

And of course, if you do have someone to share this special holiday with, what are you expecting from them? you know, even though you may not admit it, exactly what you want as a present. and if that significant other doesnt get it for you or gets something different, theyre in the doghouse.

so, what's your preference of v-day gifts?
1) it better be chocolate! i'm so sweet, and he/she should know it!
2) anything but chocolate... does he/she think i'm so fat that i just want food?
3) flowers. and they better be roses. beautiful roses, and lots of them. i'm worth the $$$
4) just a nice card. something from the heart. maybe a self-written poem...
5) dinner out. no distractions, just us enjoying champagne and a very elaborate meal.